Every time you bake a pumpkin pie in a cupcake a kitten gets its wings. Seriously. And the angelic meows will serenade you as you enjoy your first delicious bite and your 30th secret bite, because no one can turn down a miniature pumpkin pie in a delectable vanilla cupcake with cream cheese frosting dusted with unicorn dust - I mean cinnamon.
Start by making the miniature pumpkin pies which are just like full-size pies except you need refrigerated, rolled pie dough and a round cutting device. A cookie cutter, a biscuit cutter or a glass cup with a thin edge will all work nicely. Expertly manipulate the tiny pie crust round into a tiny muffin tin. There will be folds, it won't look the best but that's okay! It almost doesn't matter what these look like - people will love you!
Mix the pie filling according to the directions on the side of the can. Why mess with grandma's recipe is what I always say. This canned gloop above is much tastier than straight up canned pumpkin which I always forget when I dip a big spoon into a can of plain pumpkin. Blech!
The two-pack of pie crusts only made 12 tiny pies (and some of those were mashed together scraps) so I poured the rest of the pumpkin filling in large, glass casserole dish and called it pumpkin custard.
The pies don't take as long as a full-size one so keep your eye on them. The crust needs to be firm so it doesn't get soggy in the cupcake. The same goes for the filling - it should be fully cooked and set.
Butter for the cupcakes, butter for the frosting. You'd better stock up. We made these cupcakes vanilla but any cupcake recipe should work. I personally think a carrot cake with pumpkin pie inside would be great and meet your daily need for vegetables. You can mix this while the pies are cooking or after they come out of the oven since the pies should cool down and you don't want them to burn while you're busy eating cake batter.
Fill the regular-size cupcake tins about 1/3 full or just enough so that you have a layer of batter under the tiny pie and enough room to cover said pie with more batter. Gently! Gently place the pies in the batter, making sure not to squish the batter out from under the pie too much. Then cover the pie with more cupcake batter until it just covers the top of the pie.
These cupcakes were a little too big! Definitely some muffin top going on here. Bake according to your cupcake recipe or until the top is slightly golden. I find that as soon as I can smell the cupcakes (or brownies) baking they're done. No muffin cups needed, just a good non-stick pan and some cooking spray for good measure. Tilt the cupcakes on their side as soon as possible to stop the cooking process and start the cool down.
More glorious butter shots...here's half the ingredients for cream cheese frosting. After the frosting is all mixed scoop it into a zip-top plastic bag. Taste test it. Double check for flavor quality. Close up the top of the bag and snip a tiny hole in the corner to create a angel kitten frosting machine.
Taste testing in action. Nom nom nom.
Adapted from
Bake It in a Cake (they seem to have taken down the recipe, and I didn't write it down!) A good vanilla cupcake recipe can be found all over the interwebs. Here's one from Magnolia -
Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcake. The same goes for cream cheese frosting - this one is
The Best Cream Cheese Frosting from Slash foods and it looks just like what we made.
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